Oot & Aboot: Aim, fire!

I was very excited about my plans today, as today I made the trek out to Gettysburg. Gettysburg is in small town in Pennsylvania that has its name down in the history books as the town that the famous climatic battle of the Civil war occurred. It was the battle in which the Union Army defeated the Confederate Army, who were under the direct Command of General Robert E Lee, in July 1863.

The bus picks me up at 7.30am for the two hour bus ride to Gettysburg. I didn’t really know what to expect and what to see other than the land so I’m rather curious. I snag the back seat of the bus as I figured with the trip being so long I might as well lie down and sleep. And that’s exactly what I did. I woke up to the bus driver telling us we were in Gettysburg and we are to go to the Artillery Ridge Campgrounds where a museum exists that holds the most accurate diorama of the battle at Gettysburg in miniature scale. The diorama took two years to construct and includes more than 20,000 hand painted soldiers. When we get there, I will say I was very impressed by the diorama, but reluctant to call it a museum. On the walls of the large room are several more dioramas depicting various battle scenes that occurred during the three days in Gettysburg. The walls are also covered in dozens of paintings depicting various battles and people. Most of these scenes involve the Union army, not the Confederates. We are asked to sit down on a small grandstand on the side of the room that overlooks the huge diorama. We are to watch a show. The lights are dimmed and a recording comes on that talks about the battles and described what happened on each of the three days. During the description, lights shine on the areas of interest and sound effects are used. It does give a good explanation, however after it is over I am still slightly confused. I think it’s just too much detail in one hit and I cant help but think about Gettysburg the movie and see how that ties in. I even ask the woman running it, ‘So which side was the Jeff Daniels side again?’

After seeing the diorama we are taken to another location, called General Pickett’s Theatre to meet our tour guide who will take us around the Gettysburg fields for two hours. We meet our tour guide at the base of Cemetery Hill. As we head off on our tour is becomes very clear how huge this was, mainly just from seeing the hundreds of monuments that lime positions where the Union Army once was. There are 1,320 monuments on the fields at Gettysburg to give you an idea of why it seems like you pass one every few seconds. Most of the monuments were put their by Northerners since the 1880’s to honor the 50,000 killed there. The tour guide asks ‘why Gettysburg?’ and his answer is, 'mainly fate', as it’s where the two sides met and where the Union Army stopped the Confederates from taking over Washing DC.

We stopped at several places along the way and our tour guide continues to talk about the battle. He is extremely knowledgeable and overviews what happened on each of the days. Our next stop is at the only monument of Robert E Lee, which sits next to another two monuments put their by the South. It’s a large monument of Lee on his horse and is situated on Seminary Ridge where Lee would have witnessed Pickett’s charge from this vantage point. His monument was actually created by the same guy who did Mt Rushmore. Our last stop is at Little Round Top where we head onto the hill and get a fantastic view of the fields of Gettysburg.

After the tour we head to General Pickett’s for a buffet lunch. I sit with a family from West Virginia, and the mother asks me if I’m Spanish. WTF. That’s a new one! They know nothing about Australia and do ask if I have a kangaroo. It’s at this point I find it hard not to laugh. After too much food, I head to the adjacent store. If you ever wanted anything related to the Civil War, head to Gettysburg. The main street is lined with shop after shop of Civil War merchandise, it’s just incredible.

We got back onto the bus soon after and head to Main St where we visit the Shriver House. It was home to the Shriver’s during the Civil War. When the battle got close, the family moved out and Confederate army camped in their attic during that time. The tour through the house was run by a lady wear costume of the day. It was a great tour and I enjoyed seeing a house from that era. It makes you realize how materialistic society has become. I know I have a lot of ‘stuff’!

After our tour it’s time to call it a day and head back into DC. I take this opportunity to sleep again, so the ride is quick for me. We get back in at 6.30pm so I head straight back to the Thai restaurant I had discovered the other night and get something to eat. I wanted to go to the Crime and Punishment Museum and luckily it is open late so I made my way over there. It’s another museum very close to my hotel and it interested me more than the Smithsonian’s. It was a great museum. They went through the history of criminals from Jessie James and good guy Wyatt Earp, to Al Capone and the Chicago gangster rings. They had a lot of great memorabilia from James and Capone and the museum also outlined forensics used in crime scenes and details on all the current US goals. The one section that creeped me out was the one that looked at the death penalty. They had electric chairs and gas chambers that were actually used in goals. Not a nice thing to think about. I ended up spending several hours there and thought it was a great museum. I find all this kinda stuff interesting, like serial killers and their motivations. The museum displayed artwork by serial killers like Gacy, and the people that enjoy collecting serial killer artifacts. Which just creates the idea that serial killer’s can become infamous.

After a long day on the road and it being 11pm I headed back to the hotel and hit the sack.

What I learnt in Washington DC today:

Gettysburg is visited by 3 million people each year and is owned and run by the National Parks. You’d have to have an interest in the Civil War to live there.
You can still be lucky and find yourself the owner of a bullet or two from the fields of Gettysburg and they are still found today. Currently 7 million bullets are unaccounted for.
Washington DC is not a place you would walk around at night in.